2 men who police say were with Hernandez during slaying are arrested

Saturday

Jun 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM

ATTLEBORO — The murder investigation surrounding former Patriots player Aaron Hernandez took on new life Friday with the announcement from the county’s top prosecutor that the two men who were with the...

By W. Zachary Malinowski

ATTLEBORO — The murder investigation surrounding former Patriots player Aaron Hernandez took on new life Friday with the announcement from the county’s top prosecutor that the two men who were with the football star during the execution-style slaying of Hernandez’s friend have been arrested.

Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said outside Attleboro District Court that Carlos A. Ortiz, 27, and Ernest Wallace, 41, both of Bristol, Conn., were in Hernandez’s silver Nissan Altima when Odin L. Lloyd was picked up on June 17 at 2:30 a.m. at his home in Boston. An hour later, he was dead.

“We believe … we now have in custody the three individuals who were in the silver Nissan Altima,” Sutter said.

Hernandez, like his alleged accomplices, grew up in Bristol, Conn. He is charged with first-degree murder and five firearm offenses and has been accused of orchestrating Lloyd’s slaying. Hernandez, 23, the former New England Patriots Pro Bowl tight end, lived in North Attleboro with his fianceé, Shayanna Jenkins, and their 8-month-old daughter. Lloyd, a semipro football player for the Boston Bandits, had been dating Jenkins’ sister.

Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace allegedly drove Lloyd to an industrial pit about a half-mile from Hernandez’s $1.3-million house in Westwood Estates. There, prosecutor William M. McCauley has said, Hernandez brandished a .45-caliber handgun and pumped five shots into Lloyd. The body was left there while Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace returned to the Hernandez house.

The prosecutor said a video camera that Hernandez installed outside his house captured the threesome walking through the front door about five minutes after the murder. He said that Hernandez was gripping a .45-caliber Glock handgun while one of the other men was also toting a handgun.

The prosecutor has said that Hernandez and Lloyd spent the night of Friday, June 14, at a Boston nightclub. Hernandez, he said, was upset with Lloyd for speaking to a group of people at the club.

The Sutter announcement followed a series of significant developments in the murder investigation. Wallace surrendered to the authorities on Friday in southern Florida. Late Thursday night, the authorities appealed for the public’s help in finding Wallace, who was described as an “accessory after the fact” of Lloyd’s murder.

Earlier in the day, the Bristol, Conn., police found his car, a 2012 Chrysler 300 with Rhode Island plates parked outside an apartment complex in their city. A witness said it had been there for about a week.

On Tuesday, Ortiz was questioned in Bristol and allegedly told investigators that he was carrying a gun on June 17 in North Attleboro. He was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm without a license and jailed in Hartford for violating his probation. He had been arrested on May 11 in Connecticut for an unknown criminal charge and pleaded guilty two days later.

On Friday, a growing contingent of reporters and photographers waited for Ortiz’s arrival at the courthouse in Attleboro. He finally arrived in a police van and was brought into the courtroom at 3:30 p.m. for his arraignment on the gun charge.

John J. Connors, of Fall River, his court-appointed lawyer, said he just met Ortiz at the North Attleboro police station about two hours before his court appearance.

“He struck me as being a gentle person who is confused that he’s in this situation,” he said.

Ortiz was handcuffed and had tattoos on his neck and forearms. He stood quietly in his red jail-issued jumpsuit and ragged Afro as his case was discussed. Judge Daniel J. O’Shea ordered him held without bail pending a hearing in the same courtroom on July 9. He was sent to the Bristol County House of Correction in New Bedford, where he will join Hernandez, who has been a prisoner there since he was arrested and charged on Wednesday.

Sutter, the district attorney, said he expects that Wallace will be returned from Florida sometime next week for his arraignment in Attleboro on criminal charges, which were not specified Friday.

“This investigation, as you can see, is active and ongoing,” he said.

Sutter also urged anyone with information about the murder investigation to contact his office at (508) 997-0711.